23 Vacant Positions

My mother, wife, and the other member of Verily Prime are always

laughing and re-telling the story behind twenty-three vacant positions. Over four years ago, I answered an ad which said that they had 23 vacant compliance positions. During the initial process, I spoke to the lady in charge via a telephonic interview; she lauded me with praise about my being an attorney, my writing samples, and my knowledge of the subject matter. I was told to come down for a formal interview…so I was attired in my best business suit, polished black shoes, and the expensive leather brief-case the other member of Verily Prime gave me for graduating law school. I have deliberately left out an important variable that is germane to this story-that is when I spoke to the would-be-employer, I spoke in a fake British Accent. I have being doing so for a long time…since I was a boy in California. Within my West Indian family, I spoke what is called “Patios,” but among my American friends and colleagues, who had a difficult time understanding the above mentioned Patios, I spoke the Queen’s English. Now, let us get back to the story. I go to the interview to this fancy building in lower Manhattan…and as I waited in the lobby, a representative of the lady that lauded me on the phone came and said that the positions were filled. At that moment, I understood racism and how people in similar situations, all of sudden, resort to deadly violence that they hadn’t known before. I thank Christ Jesus that I wasn’t “packing,” and moreover, that He gave me the grace to walk out peacefully. The funny thing is that before I became a Christian, I seldom drank alcohol, yet when I was refused the interview, I went to Apple-Bees on and ordered two Budweiser beers. Now, because I had such a low tolerance for the spirits, I found myself having to wait along time for the two beers to wear off. I tell this story because we, as blacks, in this part of America, tend to have this feeling that racism is only rampant and blatant down South or what is pejoratively call “Dixie.” I have had Army basic training in Alabama and Army training down at Georgia and I could honestly say that the South has nothing vis-à-vis racism on some of my Italian, Jewish, and Irish brothers and sisters in New York City. When the renown Lehman Brothers went out of business, I happened to be working upstate New York in a compliance capacity; my dear mother called me lamenting about the fate of all those people who lost their jobs as a result of Lehman’s collapse-she then made the astute observation that all she saw coming out of the Lehman building, with their card board boxes with their belongings, were whites….

-Verily Prime